Serendipitous (Gawsten)

85. Stepping Stone

Geoff was home, and it was about fucking time. Awsten was already at the door before he could get inside. It wasn't hard to miss the sound of his car when he'd been listening out for it for hours.

The older boy looked tired and exhausted but it didn't matter, because once he saw Awsten, all of his fatigue drifted away all at once. "Hey, sweetheart."

Awsten couldn't reply. He was too busy smiling at the fact that Geoff was home and he had been waiting for almost five hours.

"Did you eat, today?"

Awsten was following Geoff by the heels back down to the basement, to the point that he could feel the cold drift from his boyfriend's skin; it was the beginning of winter, anyway. "No, but I ate yesterday? You know that?"

"Mmhmm. I know," Geoff smiled warmly, which was far from the cold that pulsed through Awsten's hand as he impatiently grabbed a hold of the older boy's, and the warmth from his own made it feel so much colder. "I'm not upset, bub. Just curious."

As much as Geoff would have like the smaller boy to be eating at least once a day, he wasn't going to push it if he was eating significantly more than he had been in the past. It was a stepping stone, and Awsten was barely managing to balance on top of it. There was no point in pushing him off with deliberation.

"You're so cold, Geoff."

He cracked open his bedroom door and placed his shoulder-bag from work down beside the bed, his cold thumb brushing over Awsten's warm knuckles. "I'm glad that you're paying attention to that and not how sweaty I am, even though it's fucking freezing out."

"No, I still noticed."

Thursday's at work, restocking day, were Geoff's least favourite shifts. His entire work day consisted of lifting heavy boxes of vinyls and CD's, and since he was the only one who was always available who was able to persistently lift boxes, he was always called in to do it.

"Hurry the fuck up and shower so that you can give me attention, please," Awsten smiled sweetly as if he wasn't acting bratty.

"Jesus Christ, someone is feisty today."

"You blasphemed," Awsten pointed out, clearly not upset or affected badly by it. Growing up in a strict christian household drew him to these things, because he was allowed to 'take the Lord's name in vain' without accepting the repercussions of that. The fact that he was hearing someone else use profanity in that matter only gave him the comfort and reassurance that he really did not have to worry so much.

"Sorry, Aws. I didn't mean-"

"-You should do it more often."

"You get off to Jesus, do you?"

Awsten scoffed and punched the older boy in the arm, reasonably gently, which only lead to Geoff grabbing onto the boy's tiny, pale wrist and tugging him down onto the bed, resulting in struggling and giggling until he was completely and helplessly pinned down to the bed, and unable to move as his wrists were held down in place.

"Now, I'm going for a shower."

"Fucking finally."

Geoff only snickered before climbing off of Awsten's fragile body and exiting the bedroom, causing the small boy to flop back into the bed and let out an exaggeratedly long and forceful sigh along with it.

If he had not been trained into being on his own constantly, then maybe his loneliness would have been more escalated than his impatience already was, which as a thought, already seemed unbearable enough. Geoff was only in the room across from Awsten, and he already felt his cravings come back.

He knew that he should take the initiative to find himself a job. Geoff said that it probably wasn't the best idea given the circumstances of everything at the moment, and attending work would possibly only make things a lot more stressful when it wasn't exactly a priority. Most nineteen-year-olds out of school at least had part time jobs, and the fact that Geoff was paying for everything was sustaining, feeding the guilt.

It felt as if Geoff had cut off the water as soon as he'd started it. Not like that had actually happened, but clearly he was just as excited to see Awsten as the smaller boy was to see him. It made him feel warm and pink at the thought that he wasn't the only one.

Nobody had ever made him feel this way. Nobody had ever made him want to feel this way. Nobody could give him that shade of pink that he had been searching for, for so long, regardless of whether he knew that the feeling existed or not. Nobody, but one.